I've always cared about appearances. The ideas for my work come from an inferiority complex and my experiences in adolescence. As an adolescent, everyone starts to care about how other people think of their appearances. In my personal experiences, when I changed my own image, people in turn changed the way they treated me, and the relationship between myself and that person changed as well. I also realized the power of fashion and the fear of other's watchful eyes. I have been interested in appearances ever since.
At the same time, in my adolescence I had felt fear what others thought about me. As a result, I had been confused how I should relate to others. Through this experience, I have showed plural self-portraits in my works. This idea is that I could escape the fears that came from the relationship with others if all people in the world were myself. My expression was based this abnormal teased feeling.
In Tokyo, Japan, where I live, and in other developed nations, mass media provides us not only with images of created appearances, but also images of lifestyles and ways of spending our time. We admire these images, and adopt them to create our own images, but we are overly exposed and consume these images so much, that we become confused about what is real and what is contrived. The consequence is that we become addicted to them. Although it seems like a personal issue, it is connected to greater problems and inconsistencies in society. In my work, I want to show my thoughts on these problems and inconsistencies taken from my personal experiences.
~by Naomi Okubo